The best Commanders from Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is getting ready to hit store shelves, kitchen tables, and deck lists everywhere. Here are our standout Commanders from the set, ready to wrangle up an archetype from the Command Zone.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction finally answers what Magic: The Gathering's spin on the Wild West would look like. Given the many worlds being explored through the game, it's about time. In a set themed around a rogue's gallery of Magic's villains and ne'er-do-wells, tons of potent Commanders are ready to hit your EDH tables. So we've gathered up five of the best Commanders riding into town this weekend. We won't include the preconstructed Commander decks here, just creatures from the regular Standard set.

Kellan is our first callout for excellent Commanders in the set, and there's good reason for it. This version is Bant, and comes cheap at three mana, meaning his color identity gives access to some of EDH's most powerful tools. It rewards spells cast from anywhere but your hand, doubling them up to cast cards or put lands into play, from your hand for free when you do. Magic has no shortage of mechanics that make players cast spells from the graveyard and exile, and Kellan makes excellent use of them.

In particular, Rebound spells seem to be the most powerful synergy with Kellan. Mechanics like Retrace, Adventures, Flashback, and Foretell all do well but Rebound takes the cake. If Kellan casts a spell that triggers his ability, and the Kellan player then uses his trigger to cast a Rebound spell, the snowballing of power is evident. Not only do they get the spell for free, but the Rebound spell's return on their next upkeep can trigger Kellan yet again, prompting three spells for no mana invested.

Kellan asks for a low buy-in with excellent color identity options and can provide an insane card advantage. It's easy to see why this is one of the most-hyped Commanders coming out of OTJ.

It's not hard to see why Tinybones has many EDH players' attention. At one mana, he's an incredibly cheap option to head your deck and will take a while before becoming prohibitively expensive. Tinybones lets you cast nonland permanents from opponents' graveyards, an incredibly powerful tool for a one-drop with Deathtouch. Tinybones decks will look to mill their opponents, make Tinybones unblockable, and recur the best pieces of their enemies' decks.

While only returning one card per turn is limited, Tinybones' cheap nature means he's still a fantastic option to represent reanimation and mill decks in Monoblack.

Obeka is already popular with Magic players for her unusual time antics, and this card is no exception. Rewarding you with extra upkeep before your Post-Combat Main Phase for each point of combat damage she deals to players. This is a seriously powerful effect, enabling you to trigger powerful upkeep effects, meant to be limited to once per turn, multiple times. Cards like As Foretold, Eldraine's Court cards, and even ones with Suspend, all benefit enormously from Obeka's effect.

This Obeka's decklists will likely function completely differently from what most fans are used to, and it's exciting to see a new tool for an "Upkeep Tribal" archetype.

Freshly back from teaming up with his ex-meal, Thalia, The Gitrog Monster is making a triumphant return. This new incarnation is a five-cost Golgari haste beater that draws tons of cards and ramps lands proportionate to the strength of sacrificed Saddled creatures. This color combination is no stranger to turning sacrificed creatures into benefit. The Gitrog makes a powerful argument for the Commander slot in those archetypes.

While his effect only triggers on combat damage, with both Trample and Haste by default makes him much more reliable. The Gitrog seems like a straightforward and powerful Aristrocrats-focused Commander with huge value potential.

Kambal, Profiteering Mayor is a slightly unusual Token-oriented card with some very enticing tools. He copies tokens that enter under your opponents' control once each turn. He rewards you for playing creature tokens by draining the table for one every time one or more tokens enter under your control.

Kambal is obviously the least powerful of our chosen commanders, but the ability to turn the downsides of cards into upsides is always a huge swing. Kambal loves the Hunted creature cycles and similar effects that give opponents tokens as compensation for a powerful effect. At the same time, this deck will pick up a surprising amount of incidental value from opponents playing tokens on their own. It is an increasingly common way to copy enemy permanents.

Those are our picks for the standout Commanders from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Enjoy your time in the unsettled wilds beyond the Omen Paths!